It doesn't (just to spoil the joke). As you know, the TI-80 doesn't have a link port, so it can't be connected to other calculators. That's also why it took so long for someone to release games for it, because it wasn't easy to hit (unlike the 85, for example, which had things installed with a simple corrupt dump).

Note: Information current as of ~1999, not responsible for design changes TI made in the last decade

If schools start replacing textbooks with tablets, there's a high probability that they will install a graphing calculator app too. Complete with access restrictions restrictions during tests I'm sure.

That will work, right up until those tablets are rooted. Which will happen about 1 hour after the first geek gets one, then he will do this to the rest either for the attention or women, money from his peers or the keep the bully happy.

The reason to get a TI calculator is they are very powerful calculators, and easy to use. When you need to get your math on, they do a great job of it with minimal fuss. If you start adding to them, well then you kinda take away from that. I mean if you want a small computer, get a small computer. There's no shortage of candidates these days, including things like smart phones. They also usually have things like a color screen, built in networking and a way more powerful processor.

The TI calculators are also far more expensive for the functionality that they grant than comparable general-purpose devices. Save only that all the math departments still require 'em, they would have lost all marketshare years ago.

This just goes to show that after some point you really don't need any more functionality. Some times old tools serve you quite well. In the last 10 years computers have grown exponentially more powerful, and linearly cheaper. However all this power is being squandered on 'friviality'. Better graphics, in smaller and smaller devices. A larger array of mind numbing applications e.g. 'Angry Birds', and Facey Book.all with exponentially slicker interfaces, that keep our minds off the futility of modern lif

Do you mean to tell me that a TI calculator is "very powerful" compared to a smartphone, when TI's designs haven't changed notably in twenty years?

Compared to a smart phone, a TI calculator loses on so many fronts, including the three most important: CPU power, RAM, and display. I have little doubt that playing Angry Birds on an Android device or an iPhone generates more mathematical operations in five minutes of play than the TI graphing calculator I used in high school (and which is still being made twe

TI's advantage is in their software. Anyone who has actually tried to get through a math course using a general-purpose computer knows what I'm talking about. Sure, Maple, Matlab, and Mathematica will all compute faster on my $300 netbook than my $200 TI-89, but it's so much easier to enter the equation into the TI, the total time spent is less.

If anyone has had a different experience, please share with me your resources for learning how to use the software.

but it's so much easier to enter the equation into the TI, the total time spent is less.

Yeah, if you include the time it takes to boot your computer. You're saying with a straight face that it takes more time to type solve(1.5 = 2*PI*sqrt(L/g), L); and hit enter that it does to go into the menus and have to use function keys on keypad the size of a condom wrapper.

(It's not like I'm bad with computers, either; one time I found it easier to write a C++ program than learn the equivalent Maple code.)

As far the enthusiast community has been able to figure out, since they make a massive profit on the hardware, what they're mostly selling is a piece of software, namely the calculator's OS. It costs them nothing to replicate that OS ad infinitum, and the only recent updates they've made to it have been poorly-tested and quite buggy, so they have little incentive to improve their calculator line other than pressure from other calculator manufacturers like HP and Casio.

I heard calculators are about 4% of TIs revenues.The processor in my smartphone is a 1GHz OMAP processor from TI.I have on that smartphone, btw, an app that simulates a HP48 calculator.I have a real one in a drawer and it still works (from the days when HP still meant quality hardware) but I don't use it anymore. The Saturn processor in it was 2 MHz clock speed and HP made it themselves AFAIK.

I have a real one in a drawer and it still works (from the days when HP still meant quality hardware)

I had one too for a while, and I loved the nice clicky keys and that big fat "Enter" button just in the right place. I had to let it go, though, because the damn thing kept letting me down with random lockups and spack-attacks during assessments in the course of my undergrad degree.

I replaced it with a TI-89 which is much faster and more functionally powerful at the expense of poorer build and lack of R

TI Semiconductors is a different company. They're both under the Texas Instruments umbrella, sure, but TI calculator division has to purchase TI chips like everybody else.

And they also use the (now very old) Zilog Z-80 and Motorola 68000 CPUs, not TI's own OMAP.

Anyhow, this is too little, too late. I remember soldering wires from my modem to my TI calculator back in the late 80s, so I could use it to dial in to a BBS and post/read when my computer was away for repairs. And a long time before that, I used

By "very powerful" I don't mean CPU. You'll notice that I noted smart phones and so on have more powerful CPUs. I mean in terms of calculator functions. TI calculators are extremely capable, especially their higher end ones. They handle pretty complex symbolic manipulation, numerical analysis, graphing, and so on. In terms of ability, as a calculator, they are really good. In fact, I don't really know of any computer programs that match them save for Matlab which is rather complicated and overly expensive.

Exactly. Which is why my TI-89 spent so much time being carried around everywhere in my bag, while my much heavier computers remained at home. Besides, computers are often at some risk in lab situations where bench space is at a premium and liquids are being handled. The TI spreadsheet and stats applications are perfect for such portable use.

Most calculator hackers I know also own HP calculators (or more commonly smartphones) and prefer those devices for math.

The trouble with phones, however, is that they are rarely acceptable during any kind of examination at undergrad level, and there are courses where you could put yourself at a serious disadvantage if you disdain to use a reasonably powerful calculator.

Speaking as a long time ago calculator hacker. If you can't do the math itself, you frankly, aren't doing yourself any favors by using a calculator. A calculator is a useful shortcut, if you know what you are doing. Also, for undergrad work, quite often calculators are flat not allowed on mathematics tests. If you want people to learn, you don't use a calculator to teach them, and you don't let them use a calculator to 'learn' it.

TI's scientific and statistical calculator market share is waiting for an Android tablet or iPad app to come along and render it completely irrelevant.

What do you mean waiting? I have an iPhone app, Perpenso Calc 4 [perpenso.com] that offers the functionality of the non-graphing TI and HP scientific, statistical and hex calculators and more. It offers a la carte pricing so you only pay for the functionality you need. Features like the alternate worksheet interface leverage the handheld computer nature of the device.

TI's scientific and statistical calculator market share is waiting for an Android tablet or iPad app to come along and render it completely irrelevant.

What do you mean waiting? I have an iPhone app, Perpenso Calc 4 that offers the functionality of the non-graphing TI and HP scientific, statistical and hex calculators and more. It offers a la carte pricing so you only pay for the functionality you need. Features like the alternate worksheet interface leverage the handheld computer nature of the device.

Unlike the standalone calculator the functionality is not tied to the hardware. The phone's battery may die over time but people tend to replace their phones before that happens. The calculator app may be portable to the new phone. If not it was probably a very small fraction of the cost compared to the standalone.

The only reason to by a TI calculator is because your teacher tells you to.

When you need to get your math on (or your physics or engineering), you use an HP:

My HP-15C is a pocket-sized programmable scientific calculator capable of handling matrices, complex numbers, and numerical root finding and integration. Its battery life is 2-3 years under moderate use.

My graphing calculator is an HP-50g, which has a 200Mhz ARM9 processor (by default underclocked to 75Mhz), an SD card slot that enables you to store all

In related news the developers of Doors CS were sued by Nintendo of copyright and trademark infringement because of their games Mario, Space Invaders and Tetris and their website got a DMCA take down request from the calculators companies claiming that the hack will remove any DRM on their calculators. The calculators companies spokesperson gave the statement in an interview: "With our calculators, our companies built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tam

The Ti-83/4 series are utter garbage, why not develop for the Ti-89? or how about the nSpire? The 89/92/Voyage have absolutely wonderful processors, the Motorola 68000 compared to the dogshit z80 chip in the 83/4?

Exactly. I do plenty of coding for high-performance systems for not-fun; it's a fun challenge to kick back and try to challenge myself with a low-resource device. Also, as far as the TI-Nspire goes, it's an extremely locked-down platform, and one on which TI actively discourages third-party development.

Also, they don't let you use the higher-up ones on the ACT, SAT, etc. The qwerty 92, 92+, Voyage are too much like a PDA, the Nspire has just ridiculous math functionality, and I don't know whether 89s are currently okay. It might vary.

Probably because newer calcs are more expensive. Also, the nSpire is more locked down than the previous models - the 89 (Ti) can run (compiled) programs written in assembly/C, but the nSpire can only run slower (interpreted) programs written in BASIC.

Might be nice if I can do this with my trusty old HP-48GX. I once installed VT-100 (emulation) terminal software on it, connected it to a TNC (Terminal node controller aka AEA PK-88) and connected to my AX.25 packet 2 meter Internet gateway and used w3m to surf the Internet. Slow, but cool.